In the Netherlands there are a number of subject-focused art libraries in museums that are particularly interesting because of their specialisations, even though they are quite small. This article describes four such libraries and the people who use them, their facilities and their place within the organisation. All are open to the general public, but in other ways they are quite different from one another.

Particular attention has been paid to the large museum library in the Netherlands in recent years. Two new large museum libraries came into existence not long ago, in Eindhoven and Rotterdam. And at the beginning of 2010 another one will open its doors in Amsterdam, that of the Stedelijk Museum. The importance of good art historical libraries for the dissemination of information and research is increasingly being recognized by their parent institutions, and is as a result being communicated to a broader audience. That there are sometimes great differences in the way each operates within its institution and towards its users will be made clear in this article.

Art academy libraries belong to institutions that deal primarily with the development of artists. As a result the library usually functions in an environment where a great deal of experiment, research and study is going on, and is there as a resource for the students as they produce their visual and written work. When I was asked to write an article about them, I decided to make visits to several similar libraries in the Netherlands so that I could compare their characteristics, use and users.

In 1987 Chris Smeenk wrote in this journal about the libraries of the Dutch art historical institutes. In the 22 years that have since passed many changes have occurred, perhaps most notably the merging of the many autonomous institute libraries into larger ones. Has this led to a more professional approach or was it caused by a search for more efficiency? Does this really matter? The fact is that Smeenk, or any other library user familiar with Dutch art history libraries, would hardly recognise the situation at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Maybe he would complain about the disappearance of the traditional academic institute librarian, but on the other hand he might be cheered by many other developments, such as the more central role of services for the public. Let’s take a look....

These days we face great emphasis on the term ‘knowledge’, which is often followed by the statement that ‘knowledge is power’. Research institutions increasingly call themselves knowledge centres, while their libraries are designated using the same term or as ‘information centres’. Information is enriched with contextual data, digitisation and web 2.0 activities circulate as keywords. Even research institutions whose main focus is art, art history or architecture are using the term ‘knowledge centre’ in their organisation plans and on their websites. The author asked four librarians from different research institutions on art history to introduce their library in order to find out if they work in an ‘art knowledge centre’.

Excellent organisational and communication skills, familiarity with available digital technology, and the ability to anticipate new developments are attributes art librarians require if they are to continue to be respected and valued professionals. Collaboration between museums, knowledge-sharing and merging library collections will cause individual museum libraries to disappear or be transformed into knowledge centres affiliated with museum collections. These will be a forum for discussion and the exchange of ideas between researchers and intellectuals who share a common passion. The infrastructure for art-related information will be a digital research environment where the indexing of research material is both unambiguous and exhaustive and integrally available.